Kolkata weather by month: averages, rainfall & climate trends
Kolkata sits deep in the Ganges delta, hot and steaming for much of the year until the monsoon breaks, with violent pre-monsoon squalls and Bay of Bengal cyclones bracketing the wet season. Kolkata weather by month: average temperatures, rainfall, records and how the climate has changed since 1940.
Today vs average
+1.7°Chigh above average
How it's changed
+0.9°Caverage temperature, 2016–2025 vs 1940–1949average temperature vs 1940–49249days above 30°C a year now (2016–2025) · 201 in the 1940sdays above 30°C · 201 in the 1940s+0.9°C vs the 1940s · see how it's changed →Weather by montha typical year, averaged over the full recordJanuary, rain 14 mmhigh 26°low 14°February, rain 26 mmhigh 29°low 17°March, rain 42 mmhigh 33°low 22°April, rain 76 mmhigh 36°low 25°May, rain 129 mmhigh 35°low 27°June, rain 262 mmhigh 33°low 27°July, rain 348 mmhigh 31°low 26°August, rain 319 mmhigh 31°low 26°September, rain 257 mmhigh 31°low 26°October, rain 132 mmhigh 31°low 24°November, rain 34 mmhigh 29°low 19°December, rain 13 mmhigh 26°low 14°wettest month July, 348 mm · 1,654 mm a yearsee month by month →Right now
What it's doing today vs the historical average for this date.Right now
26.8°
On this date: October 12
High above average · +1.7°C
- Record high: 35.0° · 2023
- Record low: 19.5° · 1944
- One year ago: 33° / 25°
Every October 12 in history, coldest to hottest
Dots show daily highs (top) and lows (bottom) for each October 12 on record (n = 87). Outlined dots are today's forecast.
Area we sample
Each city's history comes from one ERA5 grid cell, about 28 km across, shown by the dashed box. Near mountains or coasts, conditions can vary across the cell.
Location & data
Historical weather for Kolkata is sampled from the ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at 22.56°N, 88.36°E, with daily records since 1940.
- Coordinates
- 22.56°N, 88.36°E
- Time zone
- Asia/Kolkata
- Period
- 1940–2026
- Data source
- ERA5 (ECMWF)
Last 30 days
26 of the last 31 days were warmer than the historical average for that date. Average difference: +1.0°C.
Each bar is one day, from morning low to afternoon high. Warm-colored bars are days whose mean ran above average; cool bars ran below. The dot inside the bar is the daily mean. The shaded band is the typical 10–90% range expected for that date. Average = the day's mean temperature averaged across every year of record (1940–2026) for that calendar date.
This date over the years
One dot per year, showing the mean temperature on this calendar date. Dots are warmer or cooler than the long-term average (dashed line); the shaded band is the typical 10–90% range, and the highlighted dot is today's forecast. Based on ERA5 reanalysis: modelled estimates, not station readings.
Weather by month
Average temperatures and rainfall for each month: a typical year, from the full record.Climate overview
Kolkata stands in the lower Ganges delta of eastern India, a short distance from the border with Bangladesh. Its tropical wet-and-dry climate (Köppen Aw) brings hot, sticky summers from March to June and a brief, mild winter of a couple of months. Most of the year's rain comes with the southwest monsoon between June and September, when the delta turns humid and waterlogged.
The run-up to the monsoon has a drama of its own: fierce afternoon squalls known as kal baishakhi, or Nor'westers, that roll in with sudden rain, dust and hail and a welcome break from the heat. The delta also lies squarely in the path of Bay of Bengal cyclones, which have struck devastatingly over the centuries and as recently as Cyclone Amphan in 2020.
May brings the year's peak warmth, with afternoons typically reaching 35.2°C and nights around 26.8°C. At the other extreme, January brings afternoon highs of about 25.9°C and typical overnight lows of 13.6°C.
Kolkata picks up roughly 1,654 mm a year, with a peak of 348 mm in July and as little as 13 mm in December.
The record here starts in 1940, and since then the annual mean in Kolkata has climbed 0.9°C from the first ten years to the last ten. The year-by-year charts below trace that shift in detail.
Climate graph (climograph)
May is the warmest month, January the coolest: a yearly swing of 11°C. Wettest month: July (~348 mm). Whole year averages ~1,654 mm of rain.
Bars = average monthly rainfall (right axis). Lines = average daily high and low (left axis). Average = each month's value averaged across every year of record (1940–2026).
Monthly wind
Average daily peak wind at 10 m, by month.
Monthly solar energy
Average daily incoming solar energy in megajoules per square metre: the record's own proxy for how sunny the month is.
Kolkata month by month: what to expect
Typical conditions for each month, averaged across the full record (since 1940). Daylight is the time from sunrise to sunset. Record high/low are the most extreme values in the ERA5 dataset (modelled since 1940), so they can differ from official weather-station readings.
| Month | Avg high | Avg low | Rain | Daylight | Record high | Record low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 25.9° | 13.6° | 14 mm | 10.8 h | 32.3° (1946) | 7.7° (2013) |
| February | 29.0° | 16.7° | 26 mm | 11.2 h | 36.9° (1942) | 8.7° (1974) |
| March | 33.4° | 21.6° | 42 mm | 11.8 h | 41.9° (1955) | 13.0° (1979) |
| April | 35.6° | 25.3° | 76 mm | 12.5 h | 44.0° (1954) | 17.5° (1990) |
| May | 35.2° | 26.8° | 129 mm | 13.1 h | 45.0° (1957) | 21.4° (1987) |
| June | 33.2° | 27.1° | 262 mm | 13.4 h | 44.5° (1945) | 22.6° (1961) |
| July | 31.3° | 26.5° | 348 mm | 13.3 h | 37.6° (1982) | 24.0° (1981) |
| August | 31.2° | 26.3° | 319 mm | 12.8 h | 36.1° (2011) | 23.3° (1976) |
| September | 31.1° | 25.8° | 257 mm | 12.1 h | 36.3° (2015) | 22.2° (1940) |
| October | 30.5° | 23.6° | 132 mm | 11.5 h | 35.7° (2018) | 15.7° (1954) |
| November | 28.6° | 18.6° | 34 mm | 10.9 h | 33.7° (2009) | 11.6° (1943) |
| December | 26.2° | 14.4° | 13 mm | 10.6 h | 31.5° (1944) | 8.4° (1966) |
How it's changed
Year-by-year signals from 1940 to today.Climate stripes
Annual mean shifted from 1940–1949 to 2016–2025 by +0.9°C.
Each vertical stripe is one year. Color encodes how much that year's annual mean differed from the long-term average. Average = each year's annual mean compared to the average of all years (1940–2026). cooler ← → warmer
Annual mean temperature
Long-term trend: +0.10°C per decade.
One point per year, showing the temperature averaged across the whole year. The dashed line is the least-squares long-term trend. Based on ERA5 reanalysis: modelled estimates, not station readings.
Seasonal warming
Sep–Nov is warming fastest: +0.24°C per decade.
Each faint line is one three-month period's average per year; the bold dashed line is its long-term trend. Different parts of the year often warm at different rates. Based on ERA5 reanalysis: modelled estimates, not station readings.
Hot days vs frost days
Days ≥ 30°C per year: 201.2 early in the record → 249.1 recently. Frost days: 0 → 0.
Thin lines are raw yearly counts; thick lines are the smoothed trend that removes year-to-year noise. The hot-day threshold is auto-picked per city so the line actually moves. Average = a centered 5-year rolling average to smooth weather noise.
Yearly hot & cold extremes
All-time high in 1957, all-time low in 2013: 45.0°C / 7.7°C.
One point per year: the single hottest and coldest day recorded that year.
Annual rainfall
~1,654 mm/year on average. Last decade: +4% vs that average. Long-term trend: −13 mm per decade.
One bar per year of total rainfall. Dashed line is the long-term average. Average = the average annual rainfall across every year of record (1940–2026).
Day-by-day grid
Each tiny square is one calendar day across the full record, about 30,000 days per city. Use the mode switch above the chart: Anomaly colors each day by how far it ran from the historical average for that date (red = warmer, blue = cooler), Daily mean temp shows the absolute mean temperature for the day (useful to see seasons and heatwaves), and Precipitation shows daily rainfall (useful to spot wet/dry seasons and droughts). Average = the long-term average for that calendar date (1940–2026).
Frequently asked questions about Kolkata
Which is the warmest month in Kolkata?
How does today's temperature in Kolkata compare to the historical average?
How much has Kolkata warmed since 1940?
How much does it rain in Kolkata?
What is the average temperature in Kolkata?
What are the average temperatures in Kolkata by month?
What is the weather like in Kolkata in summer?
What is the weather like in Kolkata in winter?
What is the weather like in Kolkata in spring?
What is the weather like in Kolkata in autumn?
Weather in nearby cities
- Bārākpur33°/25°today+1.6°vs average
- Baidyabāti33°/25°today+1.6°vs average
- Uluberiya32°/24°today+1.0°vs average
- Bhadreswar32°/25°today+0.8°vs average
- Shyamnagar32°/25°today+0.8°vs average
- Chandannagar32°/25°today+0.8°vs average
- Bhātpāra32°/25°today+0.8°vs average
- Naihāti32°/24°today+0.7°vs average
- Hugli32°/24°today+0.7°vs average
- Hālīsahar32°/25°today+0.8°vs average